Abstract
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the story of the title character who wishes to stay young and handsome while his portrait becomes older and uglier. As such, we can say that appearance is an important theme in the novel. While discussing the relationship between appearance and essence, it is important to notice that there are two major points of view in the novel, that of Lord Henry, and that of Basil Hallward, the two figures that will alternately influence the title character. In fact, Dorian is already friends with Basil before the novel even begins, and he is introduced to Lord Henry through Basil. In Chapter 1, it becomes clear that while for Lord Henry, appearance and essence are basically contradictory things, for Basil, appearance is a manifestation of one's inner self. This is interesting because, in fact, the appearance of each of the two characters reflects their own beliefs. Basil's face, we are told, is not beautiful, but intellectual, thus showing that he has 'artistic genius', while Lord Henry's scandalous opinions in fact hide the essence of himself, which, as Basil says, never does anything scandalous at all. Dorian ends up liking Lord Henry better than he likes Basil, because he finds Lord Henry's opinions fascinating and because he thinks Basil is a bore. He starts going to see Lord Henry much more often than he sees Basil, and though he says he will always confess everything to Lord Henry, towards the end of the novel Basil knows nothing of what Dorian is doing. Though Dorian is more influenced by Lord Henry's opinions than he is by Basil's, the portrait of Dorian shows that in the novel, there is a relationship between appearance and essence. If the painting grows uglier and uglier it is, that its appearance is linked to Dorian's essence, his soul as he commits more and more sins.
